In Yiddish, the word “mensch” refers to “a person of integrity and honor.” One would not think that it would be a term that could apply a showbiz manager, but it is the best description for Shep Gordon. Even those who have never heard of Shep Gordon are probably familiar with his clients. He’s one […]
Features
LA Film Festival: ‘Frank’ (d. Lenny Abrahamson)
A provincial young man dreams of writing songs. He is not very good at it. A chance encounter with a touring American band with an unpronounceable name leads to his stepping in for their sectioned keyboard player, travelling to Ireland to spend a year of musical experiments and recording and, through slightly underhand methods, getting […]
LA Film Festival: ‘The Great Museum’ (‘Das groβe Museum’) (d. Johannes Holzhausen)
Behind the scenes of the great Künsthistorisches Museum of Vienna, as a close pan up Breughal’s Tower of Babel at the end of Das groβe Museum suggests, there are a lot of people doing a lot of work. This is in fact the only moment akin to commentary in this hands-off documentary – without talking […]
‘The Signal’ Director William Eubank Talks Aliens, Road Trips, And Laurence Fishburne
“I don’t know if they’re here, or have ever been here, but I definitely do believe in them.” William Eubank, director of The Signal ponders the existence of aliens and UFOs. It’s a fair question; The Signal is all about the possibility of extraterrestrial life on Earth, and Eubank’s first film, Love, was produced and […]
‘Finding Vivian Maier’ Explores A Mystery That Shouldn’t Be Solved
In 2007, a young realtor named John Maloof was looking for pictures of different areas of Chicago for a book that he was compiling. He bought a storage unit for $380 that contained thousands of negatives and a bunch of undeveloped rolls of film. When he examined the negatives, he saw some of the most […]